SONU ACADEMY: ANITA AND THE HONEYBEES-TEXT

ANITA AND THE HONEYBEES

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

CLASS IV – CBSE

This is a true story. Anita Khushwaha is a ‘Girl Star’. ‘Girl Stars’ is a project which tells extraordinary tales of ordinary girls who have changed their lives by going to school.

My name is Anita Khushwaha. I live in Bochaha village. This is in Muzzafarpur District in Bihar. I stay with my parents and two younger brothers. I study in college. Besides studying, I teach young children. I also keep honeybees.

All this has not been easy for me. When I was young, I used to spend all my time with my goats as they grazed for food. I always wanted to go to school but my parents did not like the idea of girls going to school.

A Dream of School

One day I peeped into the school in our village. I could not stay away. I

silently went and sat down behind the children.

I felt so happy. I wenthome and picked up courage to talk to my parents about going to school. But they told me clearly that I could not do so. That day, I cried and cried.

One of the teachers in my village explained to my parents why it is important to study. The teacher told them that they would not have to pay anything for my education upto Class V.

The teacher said that it was the right of every child to go to school. Somehow my parents agreed. I started going to school. I did not get high marks, but I always asked many questions!

Staying in School

Time passed, and soon I completed Class V. I knew that we would need to spend more in Class VI. My parents said that it was time for me to leave school, but I wanted to study more. I found a way to do this. I started to teach younger children. From the money that I got, I was able to continue my own studies.

One Sweet Memory

I remember some older boys in my village also used to teach young

children. They did not like it when I started teaching. They started to scold and scare the children, so that they would not come to me.

For some time, all the children except two, stopped coming to me. But soon they all came back because I used to teach them with love and care.

Slowly I started talking to other parents in the village about sending their daughters to school. My parents also started helping me in my work. My mother used to do all the house work so that I could get more time to study.

From School to Bee-keeping There are many litchi trees in our area. Honeybees are attracted to the litchi flowers. Many people do bee keeping and collect honey.

I thought that I could also do this. I joined a course run by the government to learn about this. I was the only girl in this course. During my training I found that honeybees lay their eggs from October to December. This was the best time to start bee-keeping.

Becoming a Bee-keeper

I completed my bee-keeping course. But I did not have money to keep my own bees and start work. I continued to teach and with time could collect Rs. 5000. With this money, I bought two boxes for keeping bees.

Each box costs Rs. 2000. With the remaining money, I bought sugar to make the syrup for honeybees, and medicines to clean the beehives.

That was in September.

By December, I had so many bees that I had to buy two more boxes. I was still learning about bee-keeping.

Many times, the bees would sting me and my hands and face would get swollen. It would pain a lot.

How could I complain to anybody? I myself had decided to do this work. The litchi trees come to flower in February. I put all my four boxes near the litchi orchards. I got 12 kilograms of honey from each box. I sold this honey in the market. This was my first earning from my bees. Now I have 20 boxes.

Every day I cycle to my college. My college is in the town, five kilometers away. When I go to college, my mother prepares the syrup for the bees. My father looks after the bees and takes the honey out of the boxes.

Now you also know a lot about Anita. Anita is known by everyone in all the villages nearby. She goes to all the village meetings and talks about how important it is for everyone to study.

Sometimes people make fun of her, but Anita knows what she wants to do. She does exactly what she wants to. Anita wants to become a wholesaler so that she can help the villagers to get the right price for their honey.

HONEY:

Honey is a sweet syrupy substance produced by honeybees from the nectar of flowers and used by humans as a sweetener and a spread.

The Honey is comprised of 17-20% water, 76-80% glucose, and fructose, pollen, wax, and mineral salts. Its composition and color is dependent upon the type of flower that supplies the nectar.

Background:

Honey, golden and sweet, has always been held in high regard. The Bible refers to heaven as the "Land of Milk and Honey." In ancient times, honey was considered the food of the gods and the symbol of wealth and happiness.

It was used as a form of sustenance and offered in sacrifice. In the Middle Ages, honey was the basis for the production of mead, an alcoholic beverage.

Beekeeping is one of the oldest forms of animal husbandry. Early beekeepers encouraged the establishment of bee colonies in cylinders of bark, reed, straw, and mud. However, when the honeycomb was removed from the cylinders, the colony was destroyed.

Every beehive has one Queen Bee that lays eggs. There are only a few males in the hive. Most of the bees in the hive are worker-bees. These bees work all day.

Explain the role of wholesaler to children. also look after the baby bees. They fly around flowers in search of nectar.

They collect nectar from flowers for honey. When one bee finds flowers with nectar, it does a special kind of dance by which the other bees can know where the nectar is.